Drones Fly and Rain Falls in Demonstrations at Indiana Farm Expo Beginning Today

Drones Fly and Rain Falls in Demonstrations at Indiana Farm Expo Beginning Today

The Indiana Farm Equipment and Technology Expo kicks off today in the West Pavilion of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It all begins with Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch at 9am as she kicks off the show and a donation will be made to the Indiana FFA Foundation from the Expo. Demonstrations will begin at 10:30 in the newly formed Demonstration Zone sponsored by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

Purdue Extension Coordinator for digital agriculture, John Scott, says drones will be flying in the West Pavilion, and men with those pesky bald spots coming in may want to wear a hat!

“With the televisions that we have here, we’ll beam what the drone sees through the camera onto the television, so folks can actually see what the drone sees and see what we see when we fly.”

Nine different Extension educators will be on hand throughout the Expo to share how they use the information they get from their drones.

“We have educators that have done corn and soybean fields, flown those and looked at things, we’ve got folks that have done some work with livestock, we’ve got some folks have done some work with ponds looking at fish and vegetation growth in that, and we’ve got some folks that have looked at some structures.”

Purdue Extension will be doing drone demos at 10:30, 12:30, and 2:30 each day of the Expo. NRCS will also be demonstrating the Demonstration Zone at 11:30 and 1:30 each day with their rainfall simulator.

NRCS State Soil Specialist Stephanie McLain told HAT, “Under this rainfall simulation, we have soils and these soils are under different types of management and we look at how that management affects the ability of that soil to function. Our soil has really important functions that we take for granted such as infiltration, providing nutrients to our crops, holding water when we need it for later in the growing season. All of these things occur, and our management of that soil really affects how well that soil can do those things.”

The full demonstration and seminar schedule can be found at www.indianafarmexpo.com.